The hype cycle for the technology known as Blockchain has reached a fever pitch, but it remains misunderstood by many. What is blockchain? What value could it bring to information management and library services? And, why should information professionals be interested? Jason Griffey will discuss the potentials and pitfalls of blockchain, focusing on its ability to decentralize and upend a number of assumptions about the way digital goods and services are implemented. He will also look at the problems of blockchain technologies; give some guidelines on separating hype from reality; and talk through what libraries should be watching for – and helping to build – over the next several years.

Griffey is the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system. He can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.